Grenade

The New York Times bestselling author of Blue Sisters and Cleopatra and Frankenstein returns with an extraordinary novel about a woman grappling with a life-changing decision during three days in Paris.

When filmmaker Zuzu arrives in Paris for the premiere of her first feature, she has only three days before she must return to Los Angeles to try, once again, to conceive a child. At thirty-four, she is reeling from multiple miscarriages just as she begins to taste the first real success of her career, and this trip is only meant to be a brief detour before the next attempt. But Paris in July—hot, crowded, and full of temptations—has other plans.

There is her brilliant, unruly best friend, Anouk, who wants everything and fears nothing. There is the possibility of a reunion with Paloma, her world-famous ex-girlfriend, whose attention Zuzu still craves. Finally, there is her husband back home, and a love both threatened and deepened by their shared longing for a child. As the sweltering days unfold and the past presses in, Zuzu makes a series of decisions that threaten to explode the life she has built so carefully.

Enthralling and emotionally charged, Grenade confronts a contradiction that’s never felt more timely: the longing for motherhood, marriage, and stability—and the longing to be free.